The University of León is a Spanish public university with campus in León and Ponferrada.The university is found in 1843, when it was created the Normal School for Teachers or Masters Seminar of Public Instruction and the subaltern school of Veterinary Medicine, founded in 1852, laying the foundations of Leon future university. Founded in 1979 as a splitting of the University of Oviedo, from the various schools and colleges that depend on that, more or less existed long ago in the city of Leon.In recent years the university has signed important cooperation agreements, among which the one signed with the University of Washington, which has allowed the installation in Leon of the second European Headquarters this university to learn Spanish, with capacity for 500 students, and signed with the Xiangtan University, which has led to the establishment in the city of Confucius Institute.
The Spanish wine sector faces structural challenges such as a decline in domestic consumption and increasing international competition. In this context, wine tourism has emerged as a key strategy for enhancing winery sustainability and revaluing wine-producing territories. This study examines the sociodemographic profile, travel habits, motivations, and satisfaction levels of 684 Spanish wine tourists, employing statistical techniques including Principal Component Analysis, K-means clustering, and Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA. The results indicate that the typical wine tourist is a middle-aged adult with a medium-to-high level of education and medium-to-high income, who particularly values gastronomy and the quality of tourism infrastructure. Furthermore, distinct factors associated with high levels of satisfaction are identified, highlighting the need to design flexible wine tourism offerings tailored to diverse visitor profiles, thereby providing useful evidence for tourism management and marketing.
Photocatalysis is an efficient option for quaternary water treatment. The photocatalysts' optimisation remains challenging due to the complex interactions between synthesis parameters and performance. In this study, a magnetic TiO2 and carbon dots (CD) composite was optimised using multivariate design of experiments to obtain an efficient photocatalyst for the solar-driven removal of amoxicillin (AMX), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and trimethoprim (TMP) while presenting high magnetisation saturation (Ms) and synthesis yield. A central composite design was first applied as an exploratory step to evaluate the effects of key synthesis parameters, including urea amount in CD synthesis, Fe:Ti molar ratio and reaction time, on the AMX, SMX and TMP photocatalytic performance, Ms and synthesis yield. This approach enabled the identification of the most influential factors governing the system and the subsequent implementation of a 3-level full factorial design to refine the optimisation by focusing on them, namely the Fe:Ti molar ratio and the CD:TiO2 mass ratio. Using a desirability function, the optimal synthesis conditions were identified. Experimental validation showed good agreement between predicted and observed values. The photocatalysts removed 34 f 2 % of AMX and 46 f 5 % of SMX within 1 h, and 64 f 5 % of TMP in just 0.5 h. In comparison, without the photocatalyst, only 1 f 1 % of AMX, 7.0 f 0.2 % of SMX, and 4 f 1 % of TMP were removed. Combining multivariate analysis with experimental design resulted in an effective strategy for optimising magnetic composite photocatalysts, reducing experimental effort while enhancing performance.
Group living can provide antipredator benefits through collective vigilance, but individual contributions to vigilance often vary with experience and age. In this study, we investigated whether adult carrion crows (Corvus corone) adjust their vigilance depending on group composition, particularly the presence of less vigilant yearlings. In a family living population of crows in Northern Spain, we compared the vigilance behavior of yearlings and adults and we analyzed whether adults’ vigilance varied depending on the composition of the group. Yearlings were significantly less vigilant than adults. Adult crows significantly reduced their vigilance rate as the number of adult group members increased, but effectively ignored yearlings when setting their vigilance effort. These findings support the idea that adults finely adjust their antipredator behavior based on the number of experienced group members rather than the total number of individuals. Nevertheless, yearlings may still benefit by foraging near tolerant adults within family groups, gaining protection without incurring competition costs. This dynamic may play a role in promoting yearling delayed dispersal, creating the conditions that favor cooperative breeding. Our study highlights the nuanced mechanisms by which social factors influence vigilance in group-living animals. The “many eyes” hypothesis suggests that group living allows animals to reduce individual vigilance against predators, thereby improving foraging efficiency. However, group members may not contribute equally to vigilance. Our study shows that in family-living carrion crows, younger individuals (yearlings) are less vigilant than adults, likely due to inexperience and greater feeding needs. As a result, adult crows adjust their vigilance behavior based only on the number of experienced, reliable group members rather than the total number of individuals present. Yearlings who are still learning to assess risk likely benefit from foraging alongside tolerant adults.
Despite swine dysentery’s relevance in the pork industry, there are still gaps in our understanding of its pathogenesis and the impact of the infection in the gut. This study aimed to characterize the in vivo colonic metabolome of pigs experimentally infected with Brachyspira hyodysenteriae at the onset of fecal shedding (Early_inf group, n = 6) and during acute clinical disease characterized by mucohemorrhagic diarrhea (Acute_inf group, n = 8) compared with non-infected controls (n = 16). The metabolic profile of the colonic contents changed progressively with disease severity, showing an intermediate pattern in the Early_inf group between the control and the Acute_inf groups (p < 0.05). In acute disease, the metabolome was defined by increased concentrations of amino acids, carnitine derivatives, arachidic acid, 1,2-butanediol, and lactic acid, along with decreased levels of anti-inflammatory compounds. In the Early_inf group, increases were observed in amino acids, organic acids, amines, myo-inositol, quinoline, and 1,2-butanediol, whereas linolenic acid and oxalic acid decreased. Integrated analysis of the colonic metabolome and metagenome revealed a strong correlation between metabolic and microbial profiles, particularly in the Acute_inf group, where differential metabolites were associated with B. hyodysenteriae, Campylobacter hyointestinalis, and Velocimicrobium ethanolgignens. Metabolites showed high predictive potential for the disease stage, with lactic acid and arachidic acid being key markers of acute infection and dihydroxyacetone and leucine distinguishing early infection. Overall, this study reveals significant alterations in the colonic metabolome and its association with the microbiota during swine dysentery, providing new insights into the pathophysiology of the disease and contributing to the development of improved prevention and treatment strategies.
Rain-on-snow (ROS) events represent a key hydrometeorological process in mountainous regions, where liquid precipitation falling onto an existing snowpack can strongly enhance runoff generation and flood risk. Despite their relevance, ROS dynamics remain poorly documented in many mid-latitude mountain ranges. This study provides the first characterization of ROS events in the Cantabrian Mountains (northwestern Iberian Peninsula) over the period 1985–2020. Using CERRA-Land reanalysis data, ROS events were identified based on liquid precipitation thresholds and snowpack depletion. A total of 501 ROS episodes were detected, exhibiting pronounced interannual variability and a clear linkage with elevation, with maximum frequencies concentrated on high-altitude central massifs. Seasonal patterns reveal widespread ROS occurrence during winter, whereas autumn and spring events are increasingly restricted to elevations above 1200 m. Synoptic classification using geopotential height, temperature, and sea-level pressure fields identified five dominant weather types, primarily associated with Atlantic air-mass advection. Trend analysis indicates weak but spatially coherent increases in ROS frequency at elevations above 1000 m, particularly in winter, contrasted by neutral or negative tendencies at lower elevations. These findings highlight links between ROS occurrence and elevation, atmospheric circulation and ongoing changes in temperature and precipitation phase, with important implications for future hydrological management in temperate mountain areas.
